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Islamic Group Claims It's Behind India Blasts

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The Associated Press

Published: July 28, 2008

AHMADABAD, India - An obscure Islamic militant group warning of "the terror of Death" sent an e-mail claiming responsibility for bombings that killed at least 45 people, and authorities stepped up security Sunday after India's second series of blasts in two days.

The city's police commissioner, O.P. Mathur, said 30 people were detained for questioning, but there was scant information about the Indian Mujahideen, the little-known group that took credit for the bombings in western India.

The e-mail's subject line said "Await 5 minutes for the revenge of Gujarat," an apparent reference to 2002 riots in the western state that left 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. The historic city of Ahmadabad was the scene of much of the 2002 violence.

State government spokesman Jaynarayan Vyas said 45 people were killed and 161 wounded when at least 16 bombs went off Saturday evening in several crowded neighborhoods.

The attack came a day after seven smaller blasts killed two people in the southern technology hub of Bangalore.

In its e-mail, the group did not mention the bombings in Bangalore and it was not clear if the attacks were connected. But both Ahmadabad and Bangalore are in states ruled by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, as is Jaipur, raising suspicions that whoever was behind the attacks may have wanted to make a political statement.

Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat state where Ahmadabad is located, said the bombings appeared to have been masterminded by a group or groups who "are using a similar modus operandi all over the country."

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